Philadelphia police investigate noose found in tree; surveillance video released

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Philadelphia police have released surveillance video as they continue to investigate after a noose was found in a tree.

The discovery was made by a passerby outside Penn Medicine, formerly Graduate Hospital, at 18th and Lombard just before 10 a.m. Friday.

The video shows two men: a white male in a hat along with a black man. Police say the video was captured by a camera shortly after the white man tossed the noose into the tree.

"There are children, innocent children around and they are frightened. And this should not be happening," said Tiffany Bonneau.

"For someone to actually do something like that, I can't explain that," said Malik Dixon.

Investigators say this does not appear to be directed toward any particular individual. Rather, they believe, whoever did it wanted a lot of people to see it.

"It could be someone playing a prank, but what we are concerned about is that obviously any time you see a noose or that type of artifact it evokes images of lynchings, so it could be someone with hateful intentions, and that is why we are not treating it as something benign," said Captain Sekou Kinbrew.

This comes after another incident involving a noose in Philadelphia.

Back on June 28, a worker left a noose on the chair of a black employee at the U.S. Mint.

That worker has been placed on administrative leave.

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